Small Warriors
by Arahai Karasahi
Summary: An alternate story on Trunks' and Goten's childhood... and Goten has a little sister? God save us.
1. Young heroes

DB-ALT/ GEN.SSJ  
  
(young heroes)  
  
*(*(*( author's note )*)*)* This has practically nothing to do with the TV series because I began the DBALT, or Dragonball alternative series sometime halfway through the android saga. It sounded so good, I decided to keep my alternate timeline/dimension of DBZ and continue despite the complaints of fellow otakus and the introduction of the Buu saga. Keep in mind, this story evolved from a much more ridiculous series that originated way back during the Freeza saga. I hope you enjoy my version of Goten's and Trunks' childhoods without bothering with the truth. Read on! P.S. please R&R. I love opinions. Give me ideas!! Whats on your mind? Review!!!  
  
foreword~ (A year after the birth of Goten, the Son family was blessed with a daughter. With her deep cobalt eyes and jet black hair, she had always been a beautiful child. Her mother was hesitant at first to allow her to learn any fighting form whatsoever, but realized that she herself had been trained at an early age, and her daughter was far stronger than she had expected. When she was very little, she met a boy who was best friends with her older brother. And so, young lives were shaped around the small happy moments of childhood.)  
  
Goten whisked through the long grass at sound speed, the trees whipping past like green and brown blurs. Suddenly, he dropped to the ground, skidding to a halt beneath the grass. Nearby a cicada gave a long, dry trill, making the hot summer day seem even more arid. The swift sound of footsteps. He crouched, waiting. The hiss of disturbed grass slowed, then stopped as the being halted as well.  
  
'Damn. He senses me.'  
  
He strived to lower his ki, shifted slowly one foot to the left. Trunks turned his head to the sound, smirked. At this point in time Trunks was almost nine, Goten seven; and in the wild foothills behind Goten's home lay the best grounds for their favorite game: search and destroy. (The title "hide and seek" was for six-year-olds and sissies, so Trunks said. He thought the new title gave it a more masculine tone.) Trunks followed the noise silently. It seemed Goten was heading for the nearest tree.  
  
'Hah. How typical of him to take the better vantage point.' Trunks thought. 'hehe, this one'll catch him off guard.'  
  
He quickly shifted positions, bracing himself, and shot a single beam towards the trunk of the young tree. A scream raked across the hills as the tree crashed to the ground. Goten stood, his head poking just above the grass.  
  
"Trunks? Did you do that?"  
  
"Who was in the tree if it wasn't you?"  
  
"How should I know?"  
  
They stood there for a moment, staring at the fallen tree.  
  
"Damnit!" Trunks shouted, "it's Cindi!"  
  
"What the-?"  
  
They pushed their way through the tall grass hastily. Cindi was twisted among the mangled branches, scratched, bleeding, and bawling her eyes out.  
  
"Why'd you follow us again?? I thought we told you it wasn't safe!" Trunks demanded, breaking some limbs to free her.  
  
She pushed her way out of some of the branches, sniffling.  
  
"I jus' wanted to play hide-n-seek wif you guys." she groaned.  
  
"It's called search and destroy, Cin'! You're not strong enough to play with us so just go home to Mom!" Goten said, folding his arms.  
  
"First of all, Goten, we don't play. Second, why don't you just back off?!" Trunks shouted back at him.  
  
He then turned to Cindi as he pulled her out of the twigs and branches. He smiled at her, taking a leaf from one of her puffy black pigtails.  
  
"Why don't you toughen up a little before you try to join us?"  
  
The small child looked at the ground and dragged a toe in the dirt shyly.  
  
"Umm.okay, I guess." Goten fumed. "Don't tell me you're gonna let a six-year-old play with us!!!" he whined.  
  
"Hey! How many times I gotta tell you? We don't play!" Trunks snapped back.  
  
"Hmf. Well letting a girl in is a big mistake. Especially my sister!" Goten grumbled, turning away.  
  
Cindi looked up, smiling irresistibly from ear to ear. "I, uh..I'll seeya later, Trunks, but I gotta go home now. Umm. maybe you can play next time you come over..?"  
  
Goten spun around at the sound of this. "Just say no, Trunks! Say NO!!"  
  
"Sure."  
  
Goten pulled at his hair with fury while Cindi burst into an all-out grin.  
  
"OK! Bye!"  
  
She took two steps, then rose swiftly to the air. Goten ran up to Trunks and socked him roughly in the arm.  
  
"Whaddaya think you're doing??? That was my LITTLE SISTER!!! Are you goin crazy???"  
  
Trunks shoved him back with equal force.  
  
"What makes you think you're in charge of me!?! You're not my dad!! And you're definitely not stronger than me!!" he stuck out his tongue.  
  
"OH! YAH RIGHT! You think you're stronger?? You only beat me ONCE!!"  
  
"Izzat so?? LIAR!! I beat you four times!!"  
  
"NUH-UH!!"  
  
"YAH-HUH!! And I can do it again!!"  
  
Goten tackled Trunks and both enraged boys wrestled in the dry dirt messily.  
  
}~*~{  
  
Cindi skipped through the door of the Son house, sneaked up behind her mother who was cooking lunch and gave her legs a hug (since that was all she could reach).  
  
"Hi, mummi."  
  
"Hey there, sweetie."  
  
She set down her spatula and turned to pick up the child. She started suddenly, seeing the cuts and scratches on her plump upturned and smiling face.  
  
"Dear Dende, Cindi, what happened to you?" she said, giving her daughter a quick kiss and picking her up, looking over her wounds.  
  
"I was in a tree and Trunks shot it down by accident and it fell on me."  
  
Chichi gasped. "That boy. I was afraid this would happen. They go off and try to kill each other with their evil yellow hair and green eyes. They look a sight! Nothing better than a couple of punks, they look like! Like that....Eminem person. Yech! To think my own son would want to be like that. I just KNEW they'd hurt you by accident if you all weren't careful and didn't listen to me."  
  
At this point, the contents of the pan were burning, and the smoke billowed from the charred remains of the meal.  
  
"Oh, dear."  
  
She set Cindi down, taking the panhandle with an oven mitt and washing it out in the sink.  
  
"Now, now, sweetheart, don't you worry. Mummi can always cook more. But first, lets get you cleaned up, poor thing, you look half dead!"  
  
Cindi blinked with wide, confused azure eyes, sucking her thumb.  
  
(will Trunks and Goten accept her? What hidden power does this toddler possess? How much longer will the peacetime prevail? Next chapter, "catch me if you can") 


	2. Catch me if you can!

(((Ok, it's about time I updated this. I need a break from Vegeta's story anyway. As you could tell from the previous chapter (which I have found unfixable) it was the first thing I ever posted, and therefore, lacking all the little tricks I know now (what with the conflict between word and ffnet) so, without further ado, I shall denounce any ownership to DBZ, GT, or the mythological AF, and resume this story whilst typing to the music of adema. (ahh, adema. And you wonder where I get all my inspiration.) I have deemed "the way you like it" as Vegeta's song. So there. (ok, that one and NIN's "I wanna fuck you like an animal") but Vegeta is barely mentioned in this story, so I'm just going to write and stop wasting your precious time.))))  
  
*Trunks saunters in, looking around and yawning* yeah, like I'm supposed to comment or something, but I'm gonna go score a joint instead. Peace. *makes peace sign, begins to leave but author stands in his way, frowning ominously*  
  
A: no, I need you to be clear-headed if I'm going to use you in my story. And besides, you're eight. You can't score much of anything, including a joint.  
  
T: *smirks all Vegeta-like, nudging her with an elbow* think I could score with you?  
  
A: sure.  
  
T: HELL YES!! *makes another peace sign at camera*  
  
A: in another ten years.  
  
T: *falls over*  
  
-Catch me if you can!-  
  
The day was waning brilliantly, the crimson sun turning the thin stratus clouds haloing it metallic with shimmering orange and pink. The hills and trees looked rosy in the blush of the sunset, and faintly, far off in the distance, a loon trilled mournfully, casting a strange mysterious beauty on the darkening woods.  
  
He sighed as he took it all in: the untouched splendor of his own backyard. He smiled with reminiscence, resting a hand on the tree trunk as he stood on the bow of his favorite tree. Yes, he had picked the perfect place for his children to grow up in, seemingly not so very long ago. Time never seemed to faze him much, even if it was a killer and a thief to the normal inhabitants of planet earth. It almost seemed unfair.  
  
Yet as he watched the westering sun, he had to realize that this world was constantly shifting rapidly, and would someday perish, whether at the hands of some evil anomaly from space or hell, or by the hands of the unassuming humans themselves. Would he be left alone, after everything else had died? Would he even outlive his own family, his endearing yet tempestuous wife, his dearest friends....  
  
His own children? Grandchildren? Great-grandchildren? Perish the thought! He shook his head, once again pushing aside uncomfortable reality until he needed it (which he never really did). But one thing that really bothered him and would not be pushed away was that he could not outlive one.  
  
None other than the prince of the saiyans. And he had absolutely no humor on top of that, which would make his endurance intolerable. Especially if he couldn't get him to play cards. And what kind of friendship is that if you can't even play cards? What a downer.  
  
Suddenly his extrasensory saiyan olfactory picked up the telltale aroma of Chichi's cooking. He smiled, lighting delicately from the tree (so as not to break the limb) and shot through the canopy of leaves, rocketing homeward. Yeah, right on! Chicken curry and rice! Hope she made enough....  
  
}~*~{  
  
Cindi hesitated, looking up at her mother as if she had gone daft.  
  
"Nu-uh" she stated, shaking her head, this movement in turn tasseling her pigtails.  
  
"Huni, mommy won't get hurt. Just try."  
  
"but, the dinosaur on TV said that fighting is bad."  
  
This caused Gohan to laugh loudly from inside the house. "Oh, my, if the dinosaur said so, it HAS to be true!" he remarked amusedly, leaning back in his chair to look out the window.  
  
"SHUT UP AND GET BACK TO WORK!!" the livid mother bellowed, growing fangs for a few seconds, in turn scaring Cindi into a fetal position at the foot of a nearby tree.  
  
"Oh, sweetie, it's ok, come to mommy..."  
  
She obeyed, twirling a lock of hair around a chubby finger while she again looked innocently up at her mother.  
  
"Now, you make a fist, like this-" she began, balling a hand and moving her thumb to accentuate that it was outside the fist.  
  
"ok... but the dinosaur-"  
  
"Hunni, the dinosaur isn't real."  
  
The child's eyes suddenly welled with tears, her lip quivering. "He's not?"  
  
"No, sweetie. Real dinosaurs are big, ugly and dangerous with razor sharp teeth and claws."  
  
Cindi whimpered, then broke into a full fit of sorrow for the loss of her imaginary television friend.  
  
"I'll never wear my barney underwear agaaaaaiiiiin!!" she wailed.  
  
"Sorry, huni, truth hurts."  
  
"You killed him!!!"  
  
"I what?"  
  
The child clenched her tiny fists, trembling with rage.  
  
"You killed him!!"  
  
"I didn't kill anyone."  
  
The toddler suddenly leapt at her mother and punched her squarely in the nose. Chichi staggered back, hands cupped over the assaulted region, eyes wide with disbelief.  
  
In realizing what she had just done, Cindi shed tears anew for her mother's pain, clinging to one of her legs while apologizing thoroughly.  
  
"I'm sawwy, mummi, I didn't mean toooo!!!"  
  
"No, no, that was good, sweetie!" she reassured the child, drawing back her hands which were smeared with blood. This caused Cindi to wail louder.  
  
"I killed mommyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!"  
  
"Sweetie, last time I checked, I was still breathing."  
  
"Oh. Nevewmind."  
  
"What killed who?" Goku said, sticking his head out the door and blinking stupidly.  
  
"No one. Nothing got killed. INCLUDING Barney." She said this last sentence to the child, who was now entertaining herself with chasing crickets and had forgotten completely the discord earlier mentioned. This caused the mother to emit an aggravated sigh as she pinched her nose to try to stop the bleeding.  
  
"What? OH!" the father finally noticed that his beloved had blood trickling down her face and ran back inside to get a towel or bandaids or something. He couldn't think straight. He hated blood.  
  
He rushed back out a few moments later, both aforementioned items in hand, frantically dabbing at her face with a moist cloth. She snatched it from him, reprimanding him for poking her in the eye, and held the cloth to her nose, fuming silently.  
  
"Hun, I don't think you should train the kids anymore." He voiced, watching her with concern.  
  
"No, I'm fine. It's just a little blood. My nose isn't broken..." she felt the bridge of her nose, wincing. "at least I hope not."  
  
He drew a comforting arm around her shoulder, pulling her close with an expression of fretfulness crossing his innocent features. "Babe, she just about took your nose off..."  
  
"and over Barney too." Gohan shouted from his desk, turning a page of his book.  
  
"Just let me train her." He interrupted before she could argue. She frowned up at him for a few moments, then gave beneath those big childlike black eyes.  
  
"Fine. But after schoolwork and before dinner, no longer." She warned, her voice somewhat muffled by the now-bloody cloth.  
  
And then he gave her one of those gleeful bear hugs she hated. "You won't regret this! I promise!"  
  
"Whenever you say that, I always seem to in the end." She wheezed.  
  
}~*~{  
  
"YOU GAYWAD!!! You made my guy die!!"  
  
"I'm not as gay as YOU are, Gaylord. And you got in the way."  
  
"For the love of mercy, do you even know what gay means???" Gohan interrupted the two boys playing their video game on the living room floor.  
  
They both ignored him and continued to click buttons frantically. Trunks nudged Goten sharply, causing him to lose control of his joystick, and thence causing an agonizing scream to sound from the TV.  
  
"You killed my guy again!!!! You're gayer than I thought!!" Goten shouted, shoving his best and only friend.  
  
"Guys, please, let's just not use that word, ok?" Gohan pleaded.  
  
"Ok, Trunks said, then smirked. "how about fuck? Is that a good word to use?"  
  
Gohan practically fell out of his chair. He threw his book down and stood. (AN-wow, don't piss Gohan off, he's like insane Quatre when he's angry!)  
  
"I'm about ready to call your mother! No, wait, ill call MY mother. How would you like that!!??"  
  
Trunks squeaked and quickly apologized. Goten giggled.  
  
"What about that word your dad uses?"  
  
"Sheoken?"  
  
"No, the bad one."  
  
"audo?"  
  
"Guys, bad words in any language are still bad words. Can we please just not and say we did?"  
  
"Fiiiiiiine." Both boys whined, then resumed their game.  
  
Cindi came skipping out of her room, humming something off the n*sync CD her mother got her. (AN- I wouldn't know which song. I hate n*sync. It's just that all little girls love that sort of crap)  
  
"Hi Trunks."  
  
"... hey..." he was engrossed with trying to kill Goten at that moment.  
  
"Wanna spar?"  
  
"HA!"  
  
"I mean it."  
  
"Maybe in three years. Maybe four." Goten remarked, ramming Trunks as he plunged his sword in for the kill.  
  
"Now...." She grinned. "or are you afraid of getting beaten by a girl?"  
  
Both boys looked at her as if she were mentally ill.  
  
"I do believe she's challenging us." Trunks observed.  
  
"Nope, just you." she announced happily.  
  
The older boy smacked the younger when he began to taunt him with kissing noises.  
  
"Fine. But I'm not getting in trouble with the almighty troll- ah, I mean your mother- if you get hurt, so let's just have a race. You still up to it?"  
  
"Yup, sure am!" She then bounced with glee toward the door.  
  
"This I can't miss." Goten said, chuckling and following his friend and sister out the door.  
  
}~*~{  
  
"Ready..."  
  
They stood side by side, one a foot taller than the other.  
  
"Set..."  
  
Both dropped to the ground, digging their right feet into the dirt for leverage, just like the Olympic guys on TV. They looked so cool when they did that!  
  
".... GOLDFISH!!!"  
  
Cindi went face-first into the dirt.  
  
"HA!! Ok, seriously......gggGOBSTOPPERS!!"  
  
Trunks punched Goten roughly in the leg, causing him to emit a painful laugh.  
  
" ok, GO!!"  
  
and the race began.  
  
To Trunks' surprise, the girl was keeping up with him. He strived still faster, now causing the short grass and the leaves of some trees to rustle as they shot past.  
  
Still, she stayed right by his side, even turning her head to smirk at him as she began to push ahead.  
  
"give up, kid, you're too small." Trunks shouted over the thundering of feet.  
  
"I know, but ill look a whole lot smaller in a second!" she giggled, then burst into energy flame and caused a small sonic boom as she soared ahead. She was right. She did look a whole lot smaller.  
  
"NO FAIR!!!" Trunks protested, blasting into his golden-haired form and rocketing to catch up.  
  
Just then Goten appeared, no doubt declaring the spot where he stood as the finish line. Cindi powered down in an instant, landing on one foot daintily and spinning like a ballerina in mockery. Trunks touched down and glared daggers at Goten.  
  
"Sorry, Trunks you weren't fast enough. I declare the winner to be CINDI! And shall evermore have permission to taunt Trunks mercilessly!" he declared triumphantly, raising his sister's hand like a referee would a winning boxer.  
  
"Damn you, Goten. And dad is NEVER going to find out about this!! NEVER!! You hear me??? You tell ANYONE and I swear to God, I'll-"  
  
((To Be Continued in our next exciting episode of DBALT!! Either called "the treehouse" or "black eyes" I haven't decided))) 


	3. Black eyes

((wanna hear something freaky? Not two hours after I wrote chapter two my mom (who, I pray has not and never shall read my stories) up and says, "hey, why don't you cook that delicious chicken curry and rice for dinner?" I swear to Goddess I kid you not. Weird huh? Anyway, now that I have all the Japanese treats my heart could ever desire, *nibbles on her an pan, sighs with bliss* I have the inspiration to write this chapter. I'm going to fit ochazuke no moto somewhere in there because it's so good, and the umeboshi flavor doesn't suck half as much as I thought it would. People might flame me if I put octopus in there, so let's not and say we did. No dashi unless in small amounts. Ok, enough about food, because Goten is gnawing on my leg.)))  
  
A: *kicks said boy away making a face* ew, Goten! I swear my leg isn't edible. Shoo.  
  
G: but- but- an pan... *drools*  
  
A: *breaks off a piece for him, tosses it* that is all I shall spare. The rest I bought so it's mine.  
  
G: *steals all her an pan when she isn't looking and flies away*  
  
A: *bursts into tears and bawls all over Goku's nice clean shirt*  
  
GK: *patpats her head* it's ok. Say... you wouldn't happen to have more an pan... would you?  
  
A: *hires Vegeta to pound on his ass and leaves storming away angrily*  
  
V: take that, bitch.  
  
GK: look at all tha pretty stars.... ah! An pan! It's my lucky day! *munches on a rock*  
  
A: *twitches, sweatdropping* why did I write this? I have no clue. I must refrain from being bored too often.  
  
Now that I'm done being strange, I'll deny all ownership to DBZ or GT and all characters pertaining to except the obvious ones that are mine and mine alone. Nothing clever today, sorry.  
  
-Black eyes-  
  
Goten gazed up at the clear blue of the summer sky, watching the wispy clouds float by lazily while he twirled a blade of grass between his teeth.  
  
"That one looks like a cow." Trunks pointed out unenthusiastically, yawning.  
  
"Nuh-uh, looks like a dinosaur."  
  
"Everything looks like dinosaurs to you."  
  
"nope, that one looks like a barbecued drumstick."  
  
Trunks sighed. Hopeless.  
  
"That one looks like a unicorn!" Cindi piped up gleefully.  
  
"Yeah, it kinda does." Trunks agreed, tilting his head slightly.  
  
The three children lay on their favorite grassy knoll, wasting time as usual. Ever since the race, Goten had a newfound respect for his sister, who often challenged the authority of the one peer he looked up to most. She was like her mother that way; practically fearless when there was a real threat to her health. Of course, she was terrified of the teddy bear in her brother's room and wet herself the first time she saw Shenron, but who didn't? Shenron was definitely intimidating.  
  
The girl smirked, reaching over and pinching Trunks in the side. This caused him to jump a little in surprise, then tackle said youngster in a "tickle attack!" which in no time involved Goten as well, and all three children rolled down the hill as a single giggling mass.  
  
"Trunks, get your foot out of my eye!!" Goten protested upon reaching the foot of the knoll.  
  
"I didn't put it there, don't yell at me."  
  
Goten kicked trunks forcefully, this causing him to fall on Cindi, who promptly bit him in retaliation.  
  
"AH! Guys!! Stop ganging up on me!!" which, of course, gave them the idea, so they both pounced on him at once, tickling.  
  
"NOOOOOO!! Aaaaaahhh!! Someone help meeeee! I'm being assaulted by lunatics!!! NO!! Not the armpit!! GA!!"  
  
"What 'are' you doing?" a familiar voice inquired.  
  
All three looked up at the towering form of Piccolo, eyes wide.  
  
"Dende? Wow, you sure grew..." Cindi said, standing and walking around the namekian. She hid herself in his cloak and giggled. "And why are you wearing these funny clothes?"  
  
The alien sweatdropped, then reached behind himself, grasping the toddler by the back of her shirt, holding her up to face him.  
  
"If you think I'm Dende, you need mental help."  
  
"Cindi... that's Piccolo, you baka." Goten hissed angrily.  
  
"Piki-what? Pikmin? I thought that was a game."  
  
Both boys anime-fell dramatically.  
  
"Eh, forgive her, Piccolo-san, she's led a sheltered life, all seven years of it..." Trunks apologized for her.  
  
"Hn, I can imagine, with a mother like Chichi. My sympathies." He said the last sentence to the girl, who was now happily humming a tune whilst dangling from said namekian's grasp.  
  
"Can you put me down now, Mr. Pikmin?"  
  
"Piccolo."  
  
"Whatever."  
  
He set her down, if not a little embarrassed for not doing so sooner, and regarded the children in his eerie silence.  
  
"Well, if she needs training, don't come to me. I don't train females."  
  
"Whatever. I don't think she's up to fighting anyway. The dinosaur said not to." Goten informed him.  
  
"Hn... well, don't kill yourselves, alright?"  
  
"fiiiiiiiiiiiine." Goten and trunks said rolling their eyes.  
  
And as quickly as the green one had appeared, he left, taking to the air and soon disappearing from view.  
  
"Well, that was special."  
  
"Special? Nani?" Cindi tilted her head at the young prince.  
  
"Nothing. Hey, let's spar."  
  
"Sparring's getting boring." Goten whined.  
  
"I can't believe he just said that."  
  
"Awright, Trunks, you an' me. Here an' now." Cindi challenged, grinning ear to ear.  
  
"Listen, squirt, just because you dad's training you now, it don't mean you're ready to play with the big kids. Get it?"  
  
Without warning, Cindi suckerpunched Trunks in the face, causing him to stagger back, trip over his own feet and fall hard on the dry grass with a thud.  
  
"Oh... my god..." Goten said through the hand he had drawn to his mouth in shock.  
  
Slowly, Trunks touched the now-puffing flesh around his eye, then looked up with the most deathly sneer Goten had ever seen on his best buddy's face.  
  
"You're goin' down, little girl. Oh ho, you are so goin' down." He stood, clenching his fists.  
  
"Cindi, you shouldn't have-" Goten winced when Trunks flashed him a warning glance.  
  
He turned his head slowly back to face her, lip twitching not unlike his father's often did in the midst of boiling rage.  
  
"Let's see if you're up to facing a super-saiyan, huh? You think you're so tough... we'll see who's tough when you're spittin' teeth."  
  
"Trunks, no-"  
  
He flared into the telltale golden aura, narrowing his turquoise eyes.  
  
Unbeknownst to the three demi-saiyans, Piccolo was watching and listening attentively from afar. High up in the canopy of some towering oak, he smirked. The girl reminded him of Gohan not so long ago; bold after finding his hidden strength. It was in the saiyan blood to challenge a more physically powerful being. Crazy monkeys, he chuckled to himself.  
  
Cindi smiled happily up at the blond boy as if she knew better than to be intimidated by him.  
  
"You can't beat me." She sing-songed, teasing him.  
  
"Oh, and how is that?" he inquired through gritted teeth.  
  
"'Cause I'm just so cute!" she replied, suddenly hopping up on her tip-toes and planting a kiss on his cheek. This caused a remarkable reaction: the boy recoiled in disgust rubbing frantically at the entire right side of his face, squealing a disapproving "GROSS!!!" while hopping from foot to foot, and screaming as if his face were being eaten away by flesh-consuming bacteria. Goten collapsed in irresistible hoots of hearty laughter at his friend's turmoil, rolling on the grass and holding his sides as he shook with spasms of mirth.  
  
"I win! I win!" Cindi taunted, skipping around the golden-haired boy, who in turn, also without warning, pounded her forcefully on the head. She fell backward, eyes taking on that age-old anime swirl and mouth a dazed smile, a large bump protruding from her cranium. "itaiiii...."  
  
Goten stopped short, standing and clearing his throat, acting as if he never laughed in the first place.  
  
"Told you not to mess with me, kid." Trunks reminded her haughtily, thumbing his nose. "C'mon, Goten, I need a real challenge. Spar with me?"  
  
At that precise moment, Cindi had regained her feet and swung a fast kick to the side of Trunks' head, sending him flying into a nearby tree. She then proceeded to make an obscene gesture in his direction, the selfsame one she had seen him use so many times. (AN- watch tha birdie) Again, Goten was reduced to giggles.  
  
The enraged demi-saiyan charged back to her and they commenced a fast bout of hand-to-hand combat. This waged on for almost half an hour before both managed to knee each other in the gut at the same time and fall to the ground, curling up in pain.  
  
"Uhm... just a suggestion..." Goten began. "maybe you guys should just call it a tie. It's lunchtime."  
  
Trunks coughed a few times before responding. "Sure, whatever."  
  
"He's just scared I'll end up beating him- *cough, hack*" Cindi stated, tears welling in strained eyes.  
  
"Am not. I'm afraid I'll end up killing you, baka onna." His stomach grumbled, he blushed. "...and I'm hungry." (AN- awh!)  
  
"Mum's making udon noodles." Goten declared. Both chibis hopped to their feet after hearing this fact.  
  
"Your ass is mine tomorrow, though." Trunks warned the girl, powering down to his lavender-locked form.  
  
"As if. I'm gunna make you cry like a baby."  
  
"Oh, I'd love to see you try...right after I beat you to the table." He challenged, smirking.  
  
And another race began.  
  
}~*~{  
  
Trunks sneaked through the Brief residence's front door cautiously, sensing for any trace of his father. He then proceeded to very stealthily make his way upstairs to his room.  
  
"Hold it."  
  
The boy froze, wincing.  
  
"Hey, mom, 'sup?"  
  
"Don't you 'sup' me, young man. Get your tucus back down here."  
  
"uhh..."  
  
"Now!"  
  
He promptly turned and skipped stairs on his way to the bottom.  
  
Bulma gasped upon seeing the state of her son's face, then frowned.  
  
"You've been playing rough with Goten again, haven't you?"  
  
"Hehe, yeah, I guess." He laughed, if not a little uneasily.  
  
"Well, how did you manage let him do that?" she said worriedly, lightly brushing a hand across his left cheek and grazing her thumb on the sensitive bruise around his eye to check for severity of damage. The boy sucked a sudden breath in through his teeth in pain, pulling away.  
  
"Mom, it hurts, don't touch."  
  
"You need some ice on that, stay there." She left for the kitchen.  
  
"No, mom, you don't have to-"  
  
"Yes I do. I will not let my son go back to school next week with a black eye and that's final. I don't know if you kids think it's 'cool' to have black eyes but it is certainly not 'cool' in my household..." she paused, depositing some ice into a plastic bag and wrapping it in a hand towel. "Now." She strode from the kitchen's ample doorway, stopping in front of her son and attempting to apply the bundle in her hand to his face, only to have it snatched from her grumpily by the chibi, who unwillingly placed it to his blackened eye.  
  
"Just you wait, Cindi, just you wait..." he growled under his breath, cursing the girl.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"Ah, nothing."  
  
((Next chapter will definitely be "the treehouse" unless I decide to write another frivolous fighting scene between the two. Then it would be "Trunks' revenge". I wont decide yet cause I like to keep my options open. Anyway, review.))) 


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